Fidelity to Fertility

Fidelity to Fertility

One Michigan hospital’s refusal to do a sterilization has the ACLU in attack mode

GRAND BLANC, Mich., September 14, 2015 (ChurchMilitant.com) – A Catholic hospital in Michigan has denied a sterilization procedure to one of its patients, and now the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is up in arms, threatening to sue.

The hospital, part of Genesys Health System, objects on religious grounds, as the Church teaches that direct sterilization is an intrinsically evil act.

The woman involved in the current dispute, 33-year-old Jessica Mann, was planning to have her third child at the hospital next month. Because of a brain tumor she has, her doctor is recommending that she refrain from having anymore children after this one. So the doctor advised that she undergo a tubal ligation during her upcoming Caesarean section as a form of sterilization.

She heard the hospital allowed for certain exceptions to its policy against tubal ligations and had asked to be considered for one, but after review, the hospital ruled that she doesn’t qualify.

Now the ACLU is threatening legal action.

ACLU officials say the federal protections the hospital might normally appeal to aren’t applicable in Mann’s case. Further, since the hospital’s policy pertains specifically to reproductive matters, they seem to think that means it affects women disproportionately, and in a harmful way.

In October 2014, Genesys released a memo clarifying that the aim of its policy against tubal ligations is to “strengthen our alignment with the Catholic Ethical and Religious Directives.” These are the guidelines for Catholic hospitals released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

On sterilizations, the directives state:

Direct sterilization of either men or women, whether permanent or temporary, is not permitted in a Catholic health care institution. Procedures that induce sterility are permitted when their direct effect is the cure or alleviation of a present and serious pathology and a simpler treatment is not available.

Mann is currently looking for another hospital where she can have her next baby delivered and also obtain the desired sterilization procedure.

Genesys adminstrators at the hospital are insisting she still have the baby at their hospital and then go through with the tubal ligation somewhere else later. Mann’s doctor apparently believes this would be too risky an option.

The ACLU lately seems to be after hospitals that dare to remain faithful to the Church’s teachings. Another Catholic hospital in California was recently under the same legal threats from the ACLU when it denied a woman a tubal ligation earlier this year. That hospital, Mercy Medical Center in Redding, ended up caving in and agreeing to the gravely immoral procedure.

As far as Genesys, it is only stating the following: “As a Catholic healthcare system, we follow the ethical and religious directives of the Church. Beyond that, we can’t comment on this patient’s particular case.”

Michael Voris talks an in-depth discussion of the true, financial cost of abortion and its effects to the United States. Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that, “The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being’s right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death” (CDF, Donum vitae III; CCC: 2273).

Contraception & the New Dark Age, Part 1-4: Where we are & How we got here by Dr. Martin Brenner click below:

We are used to thinking of the Rockefellers as simply a byword for wealth, power and financial success. Perhaps we might think of them as determined businessmen or see them as great philanthropists. But the truth is far different; the Rockefeller Foundation is actively undermining the Catholic Church, and in the process, attempting to erase man’s natural orientation to the eternal.

Are the environmental movements and groups simply devoted to laudable, correct stewardship of God’s creation, or do they have a more sinister, hidden agenda? Is “global warming” being used as an excuse for something far darker? Is the final goal of the liberal elites behind the push of junk science population control, eugenics and Gaia worship?

This week on Mic’d Up we’ll be tackling the terrible scourge of Contraception on the Church. Michael Hichborn and Rey Flores from American Life League will join us to expose Catholic Relief Services complicity with Organizations who support contraception and to Discuss The Pill Kills Day of Action 2014. Also joining us will be Lynn Mills who will be discussing the continued prayer rally at Providence Park Hospital in the Archdiocese of Detroit because of their complicity in abortion, contraception and sterilization. Following that same thread we’ll break down the announcement from Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron concerning the crisis of parish closings facing Detroit. Also dropping by will be author James Kalb, to discuss the plague of pluralism on the Church’s Hierarchy.